infantilize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to keep in or reduce to an infantile state.
-
to treat or regard as infantile or immature.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of infantilize
1940–45; infantile + -ize, or by back formation from infantilization
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Public policy shouldn’t infantilize people simply because minors might misuse a product.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025
Some thought, especially in retrospect, that Ross immersed himself too deeply in micromanaging peace, that his approach tended to infantilize the region’s players and made them too dependent on outside powers.
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2025
Burnett never insists that they’re the sane ones, nor does he infantilize Fish and Poinsettia’s afflictions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
We infantilize them, as though only in having a present, committed partner are we truly grown-ups.
From Salon ● Nov. 24, 2022
Efforts to create these “safe spaces” seemed, to me, to infantilize students by insulating them from speech they found the least bit upsetting.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022
On other episodes, Chambers talks frankly about an economic climate that he says has infantilized his generation.
From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2023
The story she has told him about his father’s death serves to keep him an infantilized, dependent man-child.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2023
Your shared duty is to keep the friendship from getting so out of balance that you feel infantilized.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 12, 2022
That song makes me feel like I’m infantilized or something.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 9, 2020
When grown men are infantilized, most don’t take to it nicely.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Family systems are, by design, infantilizing to the youngest members, and that hierarchy can persist for both parents and their children, regardless of how much money anyone earns.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 7, 2026
His “gruff” father had little time for such infantilizing obeisance and would resist as best he could.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Then they gave an hour to Bassem Youssef, who scolded their “total lack of critical thinking” and bluntly told the pair of thirtysomethings to stop infantilizing themselves.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2025
“Elderly female action star” is a cute premise, but Margolin makes the most of it without infantilizing his heroine or otherwise resorting to lowest common denominator humor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2024
In a way, he's sort of infantilizing her by pulling his punches and not saying that he doesn't like the writing that she's doing at the moment.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2023
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
